BIT OF A CATCH UP ....

Somebody reminded me that I needed to show the finished versions of a couple of pages I'd blogged as works in progress, so here they are. Several people commented on the above when it was on my workdesk to say that they admired the background, so this is where I admit the truth that it is actually a piece of scrapbook paper rather than brilliantly original work ... sorry, but there it is. Wish I had made it actually, but I didn't - what I did do is (according to my ecological principles) recycle part of my vast stash of paper offcuts.

However, the page below is entirely my own and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I really like making the writing lie in layers across the page like this, as it always makes me think about the layers and strata of the people we are. From the face we show to the world to the deepest most hidden parts of ourselves. The sentiments here are something of a counsel of perfection, but that's no reason not to try to fulfil them is it??

NOT QUITE WORKDESK WEDNESDAY

OK, I admit it - I forgot to take a picture of my desk, and now I'm rushing out of the door with no time to take one. However, I would have to say that it looks almost exactly like all the other pics I've posted, so instead I'm putting up a picture of the journal page I was finishing and would have photographed on the desk IYSWIM .... If you want to see other desk, get on over to Julia's.

And yes - it's Fat Wednesday again! Many of you seemed enchanted by the concept, and keen to borrow the idea. Feel free, I didn't think of it either, but got it from a fellow WW dieter. So it's the day off again, and we are going out shortly for some 'us' time. Didn't manage an all day breakfast last week, instead we had spicy lamb wraps and a HUGE slice of cake!! This week who knows?? Might have to try the chocolate brownies I looked at last week but didn't have room for! Must nip into Primark for some nice warm PJs too, it's getting a bit cold around these here parts ...

DRAWING MY OWN SPIRIT

Sorry this is a bit faint, but I wanted to show the initial sketch I put down on the page for this. I had the expression "the wings of my spirit" in mind, and wanted to show a figure just taking flight ...
Anyway, then I began to add colour and movement to her hair and wings - this is done with my Promarkers, which I am slowly learning to love, although I'm not sure they'll ever replace my beloved watercolours.
Then I drew some layers of colour below, more of those striations which represent seams and layers of life and soul, some of which are so very deep. I've got the first statement down in writing but now need some time to reflect on where it goes from here. I'll probably come back to this in a few days, and in the meantime I'm working on other pages. That's one of the things I love about art journalling, that I can just go here and there as the fancy takes me, and that whatever comes is the gift I'm given ....

Oh yes, and I've been chopping up magazines again, so how about these for journal prompts? ...

Download/offload
Well good
The Smart Way
Go see friends
Wake Up
You have somewhere
Song of the Goat
Random acts of literature
Star Quality
Ask Why
Around Sundown
Nothing Compares

THAT OLE WORKDESK WEDNESDAY

Not doing very good joined up thinking yesterday, so forgot to take a picture. This is the result - a genuine, Wednesday morning, no holds barred, unashamedly the real thing ... picture of my workdesk. Now this looks messy to me, which means I'm not too happy about it. Be fair, I could have tidied it up before I photographed it, but I didn't, pursant to my policy of being fearlessly honest in my art.
And here is the art in question - very much a work in progress, nay hardly started you might say. It's more of those layers which make me think of seams of minerals hidden in the earth, quite appropriate for what I'm trying to write about. Needs more work, but I like to jump about between pages as inspiration strikes ... which it doesn't always!

Off out now to indulge in some "Fat Wednesday" hi-jinks with my old man - this is his day off so it's the day when we ditch the healthy eating etc and go out for something luscious like an all-day breakfast! The rest of the time we try to be good. It works for us. Back later to admire all those lovely desks .... and if you don't know what this means, get on over to Julia's place and join in.

DRAWING THE PSALMS ...

On my earlier post about my "peaceful" page somebody commented that I was taking a lot on, trying to draw pictures of God! This made me think of that joke about a little girl doing a drawing whose mother told her that nobody knew what God looked like. Her answer was that they would when she'd finished her picture!!

So lest you think that I'm creating graven images and whathave you ... I was actually thinking here about a modern psalm which is one of my favourites, and it begins "I will praise God my beloved for she is altogether lovely". What I was trying to encapsulate was the "altogether lovely" part, I suppose. As you can see above I started with some simple pencil lines, and then below got to work with my promarkers. I'm not very good at the fancy shading with these, but do enjoy using them.
Kept adding more colour, but somehow it wasn't quite right.
So I left it to come back to another time, at which point I coloured the background navy blue, and that's when this page really took off! Unfortunately I was so absorbed in the process that I forgot to take stage pictures, so this is the final result. The photos don't show it very well, but I used lots of gold and silver on this, and in fact all the writing (lines from the psalm) is in gold, and she had threads of both colours woven through her hair.

At the very end I still felt it needed something, so I masked off her face before spraying the whole page with a glimmery gold dust effect. Unfortunately this doesn't photograph very well, but in real life it seems to give the inner glow effect I was after. This is one of my favourite pages so far - actually deceptively simple, but speaking of something which goes deep for me .... I hope you agree that she is altogether lovely!

WOYWW once again ....

Hi to all you What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday people - and if that baffles you, get on over to Julia's to discover what it's all about! I'm only offering this close-up of my desktop today because the rest of it was/is embarrassingly tidy, which is how I like it. Sorry, but I can't help it, its a birth defect. Anyway, this is what was occupying my pink mat yesterday afternoon, which is (of course, what else) another journal page in progress. I've been following prompts from an online course, which encouraged you to try zetti doodling, which I love, so this is the result.

And there is a relationship in my life which is and always has been very tangled and complicated, so this style really fitted well with my attempts to understand and explain it (I can't). There's a liberation in that at least - admitting that it doesn't make sense and being OK with that.
So I just thought about my mum and doodled madly away and it sort of grew and grew ... This is amazingly relaxing to do, I can really lose myself in funny little spirals and dots, its all a bit obsessive/compulsive really. My tools for this are a variety of black letraset pens from a very fine 0.3 point upwards, and a black sharpie for thicker lines.

And in the end I couldn't resist adding a teeny bit of colour ... not sure now whether I regret doing that or not, but anyway its done. I promise to try and mess up the desk again before next time!!

PEACEFUL PAGE

This is one of my spiritual pages, in which I was thinking about God as woman/mother (just as legit as Father or male) and I imagined a sort of ageless woman, neither young nor old, whose eyes would be very deep and whose wisdom would show in her face. That's what I was trying to draw here, although I'm not totally satisfied with the result, but you get the general idea. Never mind, I know what I mean!! There's lots and lots of writing here, which starts by going all around the page, mainly quotations from modern psalms which I love. The title is, of course, from Blake's poem ...

Hope this isn't too heavy to share - I wanted to be honest about the things that go on inside me, and not to feel there were aspects of my inner life that I was afraid to reveal ....

WEDNESDAY MORNING! WOYWW

Good morning WOYWW'ers and to the weekly reveal of the workdesk (if you've no idea what I'm on about all is explained here). Held an Open House at the weekend so the Studio got tidied to an unusually high standard, and I'm loving how uncluttered the desk is - I work better like this! Have gone for the wide view today, so that you can appreciate just how lovely my window is with its view of the garden. As you can see, I keep stamp pads and other basic essentials to hand in the hutch/shelf (which is an Ikea CD shelf upside down IFSWIM). On the top my pink binders house collage sheets and the catalogue of my stamps - nothing fancy, I just stamp an image whenever I get a new one, and note whether its wood or unmounted, and maybe a clue about where to find it ....! It would work better if I went through them all and re-did the catalogue with themes, ie words together, flowers in one section, but I've got so many stamps I come over all faint at the very thought!

If you've had a good look at the desk you may have spotted a just begun journal page and a finished one. These are the work in progress pictures of the finished page ...
I'm pretty sure they don't need any explanation, but they do show the starting point and how I build up from there. Apart from that first question, I didn't really know where this was going.
But as you can see, I got there in the end! Not sure what it is with me feeling a need to fill every available inch? Maybe its not that so much as generally having more to say than I can actually fit on the page, so I squeeze in as much as possible!
Happy Wednesday one and all, the sun is shining (for now at least) so we're off for a spot of retail therapy and lunch, and once returned I'll have a happy time noseying about your desk ...

At last - time to journal again

I've been having withdrawal symptoms this weekend because I've been too busy to work on my journal, but I managed this page last week. I've admired some comic strip style work in other journals, and this is my attempt to follow suit - not sure I've got it quite right, but am working on it! It was fun to do anyway ....

GOING SOMEWHERE

This is one of my latest journal pages, reflecting the feeling that I'm clearly meant to go somewhere but I'm just not sure where! The background is a sheet of scrapbook paper which has writing on, but it worked really well for drawing over, and I painted the edges too. The colouring has been done with a mixture of markers and soluble crayons ... anything to hand really!

This page began with the signpost and just grew from there - on this occasion I didn't remember to take pictures of each stage in its development. As you can see, I've been true to the promise I made myself that I would do more drawing, and I'm loving it!